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About 150 Serbian, Croatian and Greek fans were ejected
from the Australia Open today after ethnic tensions boiled over
into violence about 12.30pm.

A fight broke out between the Serbian and Croatian fans in the
garden area of Melbourne Park.

Serbs and Croats threw bottles and tried to hit each other with
their national flags.

Up to 20 police rushed in to stop the violence.

The Serbians were chanting "Die Croatians, die" in Serbian, and
were joined by Greek fans shouting "Greece, Serbia, Greece,
Serbia!"

Police calmed the situation by dividing the fans and escorting
the groups out of different entrances.

The Greek contingent, who were standing near the Serbs but were
not involved in the fighting, were angry that they had been ejected
as well.

The Serbian and Croatian groups apparently had an understanding
that today would be the Croatians' day to attend the tennis, and
the Serbians would attend tomorrow.

A fight was apparently arranged for tonight.

"Monday is our day every year," said a Croatian fan, who
identified himself as Cmladen Mrnuaus. "We have to fight back."

Tensions have died down at Melbourne Park since the
ejections.

Those ejected were mostly of Serbian background, a Victorian
police spokeswoman said.

"They were upsetting the Croatians; 150 people were ejected from
the grounds shortly before 1pm. They are believed to be mostly
Serbians.

"Earlier the Croatians had gathered in Federation Square,
chanting their songs and lighting flares before they made their way
to the arena."

No arrests have been made, and at this stage there are no
reports of injuries.

Croatian and Serbian players scheduled to play

Several Croatian and Serbian players were scheduled to play on
day one of the Open, including Croatian fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic,
and the ninth seed, Croat Mario Ancic.

Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who attracted enormous Greek support
on his way to the final last year, was also slated to play.

The fans, most draped in Serbian, Croatian or Greek national
flags, were marched to the front gates and outside onto Swan Street
chanting as they were escorted.

Several tried to push back into the crowd on their way out, but
were caught and forced back into line by police.

Police pushed Croatian supporters east down Swan Street towards
Richmond, while Serbian and Greek supporters were funnelled towards
the city.

A Serbian supporter who identified himself as Sasa Alesic said
the violence had started out of nowhere.

"It's not fair we've all been chucked out. Even if we didn't
start it, or do anything, we get thrown out. It's racist.

"We didn't come here for a fight, we came here for sport."

Police said the stoush began with verbal niggling and soon
erupted in physical clashes between the groups. Many members of the
groups were clad in Croatian and Serbian flags.

Violence 'disgusting'

Five Croatian fans later slammed the violence as "disgusting".

Marina, 19, Danijela, 19, Ivana, 17, Kristina, 16 and Marija,
20, all from Melbourne, who did not wish to use their last names,
said they were watching Croatian star Mario Ancic on court three
with other supporters when they heard a Serbian crowd outside
chanting abuse at them.

They said most of the Croatian group they were with ran
outside to confront the Serbian fans.

"They all went outside the court, it started with just abusing each
other verbally and then it got into an actual fight," Marina
said.

They saw people punching and kicking each other and accused the
Serbian supporters of attacking the Croatians with flag poles.

The girls watched the brawl over the wall of their court for about
15 minutes before dozens of police arrived to break up the
violence.

They said after years of going to the tennis, it was the worst
thing they had experienced.

They had since heard a friend had been taken to hospital after
being hit over the head with a flag pole, but no injuries were
immediately confirmed.

"It's bad because you go to the tennis and you go to watch and then
it ends up in an actual brawl, it's just ridiculous," Marina
said.

"You go to cheer on your actual player, not to go and fight."

They said they also felt police had targeted them.

"I do [think it's discrimination] with the cops because they tend
to just stick with us and they did random bag searches and body
searches in the actual arena.

"They checked all our bags, made all the guys pull up their
shirts."

Police did not check non-Croatian supporters in the same way, they
said.

"No, it was just us, it was just the Croatians and everyone else
that was there [in show court three] didn't get their bags checked
like us."
- with Jamie Pandaram, Ben Doherty and AAP

6040Lucas Dawsonhttp://www.smh.com.au/news/tennis/why-tennis-there-was-no-soccer-on/2007/01/15/1168709679361.htmlWhy tennis? There was no soccer ontext/html-documenthttp://www.smh.com.au/news/tennis/open-rocked-by-ethnic-brawl/2007/01/15/1168709679372.htmlOpen rocked by ethnic brawltext/html-document